Happy New Year

Hi, who is looking forward to the new Year? Are you planning on making any crafty resolutions? Mine is to send more cards 'just because!'

I'm starting that off with new year cards, my latest design is bright and cheerful yet classy looking.

I love hot pink and black together so Cut Cardstock Pop Tone cardstock in Razzleberry and Black Licorice are perfect.

My card begins with an A2 sized piece of Razzleberry which I place inside a 3D studded leather embossing folder.

The Pop-Tone cardstock embosses really well. Even with a 3D folder there is no cracking or creasing it just gives an amazing finish.

The other thing the cardstock is perfect for is foiling. One of my favorite techniques for a classy look is foil. I do this in a number of different ways but today I used my Spellbinder Glimmer machine. The hot foil plate is a very ornate sentiment and looks great in silver against the Razzleberry.

Now my elements are ready I am building my card. Trimming 1/4in off both length and width of my embossed piece gives room on and A2 base for a mat. As I said black and hot pink go so well together so my mats are in the Black Licorice.

These are cut 1/8th inch smaller than my cardbase which gives me a thin mat. I much prefer just the hint of a mat to a wider one.

The Classic Crest Recycled 100 Bright White Card Bases are heavy enough to take the weight of the Pop-Tone cardstock without buckling.

Once my mat is in place I can add the embossed panel. This is heavily embossed so I used wet glue, this gives more grab than double sided tape.

My sentiment is my focal point. It has a mat of black cardstock before I adhere it to the center of my card. I did contemplate making this a portrait card but think the sentiment looks better on a landscape orientation.

Foam tape holds the sentiment in place. This not only gives me more dimension it takes makes the embossing look deeper by casting shadows.

Finally to accentuate the cushioning of the embossing I added black pearls in each 'button' area.

These pearls are on an adhesive strip. I don't want any of the adhesive to show and they are so tiny it was difficult to cut around them. They are removed from the adhesive and using a fine tip bottle, glue is added to the card to fix the pearls in place.

I hope everyone has an amazing new year and you get lots of inspiration for you crafting here on the Cut Cardstock Blog.